More Pop-up

Following up on my previous post "pop-up galleries in vacant space" here are a couple more. It's great to see that not all retail space is turning into Outlet Stores during the crisis but that also young and upcoming creative talent gets a chance to rent or borrow vacant space. Curious to see what the city is going to look like come Autumn. Everybody, please send me a line if you see more popping-up in Utrecht (or Amsterdam)

Fashionmania.nl on the Nobelstraat

Probably the most popped-up typography on the windows so far. Splashed on hand-drawn type, red paint directly on the windows. This looks really improvised, also the inside looks relatively improvised and the style is truly Popped. This is an online fashion-shop (not a gallery) testing the waters in the real world of brick and mortar retail. They can stay for a limited amount of time in this former take-away (read my previous post on Stamppot-to-go here)

DepARTmentstore at Springweg
the temporary art- and lifestyle shop DepARTmentstore had closed it's doors by the time I arrived, probably the reason it looked a bit empty, empty shelves say enough. Around christmas they had a space on the Plompetorengracht in the CBKU  (read my post here on Affordable Art) this time around the approach seems more stylized, less  abundant and crazy. What's left to see is furniture, plump in proportion a mix between 50's retro and country-style. The country zest really comes through in the proportion and simplicity of the pieces. It's spiced up with some colour-ful and semi-abstract paintings. This style is not immediately recognizable as pop-up it looks more like a regular gallery, the other pop-ups that I have been visiting have an energy and vibe to them that I'm missing here (perhaps because I was too late....) Looking forward to the next one, please let me know when and where!

In-Fashion today and tomorrow

Being in-fashion, what does that mean today? This is the red Thread of the In-fashion event that took place in Utrecht saturday 21st of April. Some answers are given to us in an exhibition of local talent and a mini-conference of speakers that talk us through wearables, sustainability, social media and storytelling. Fashion documentaries are shown in 't Hoogt.

So what does in-fashion mean? It used to mean being up-to-date about the latest fashion-trends set by an elite, but today's answer is much more complex. Because fashion is no longer just about making a fashion statement in terms of style, there are many other aspects to consider, technological aspects and innovations might bring trends that are of a different order than styling. That fashion is bad for the planet is a well-known fact and anybody who has been in touch with sustainable fashion knows that this is an incredible complex matter because the aspects are multi-faceted and all partners across all chains need to work together and be transparent to make that work. Social Media brings news in terms of how new designers and brands can promote themselves, and how fashionistas can share ideas and inspire each other. Social media also gives a voice to the amateur of the street, that part was not really addressed. and lastly selling fashion is about selling stories. And dreams.

The first speaker was Meg Grant who gave us a brief introduction to wearables; textiles with soft technology build-in; conductive threads, embroidered PCB-boards and different LEDs and sensors. Most wearables are still in the experimentation phase, both by haute couture designers (Hussein Chalaian), young start-up companies mostly focusing on design research (Cute Circuit) technocrafters (Leah Buechly) and hackers (like Meg herself)

Meg Grant talking about her see-thru-me shirt

The question is; what can we do/ make with wearables that is really meaningful to people? It seems to be meaningful for celebrities to wear dresses like bill-boards to attract attention to themselves (i.e. Black Eyed Peas, Rihanna, Kate Perry etc) but do normal people want to wear dresses that express their emotions? Probably not. The application of light in clothes is still being investigated by many experimental wearables designers, like Meg herself. She has applied it in a see-thru shirt, that magically reads light that is shined on the back of the shirt through to the front panel. Light can also have a very useful application such as turn signal lights, arrows pointing left or right. (Leah Buechly). and lighting-up sequins and beads can poetically communicate how polluted your environment is (Diffus pollution dress).

What's next? Could our body and clothes become a communication hub? (dream jammies) we can already pick up our biometric or contextual signals and translate these into (useful) information, but what if our wearables would recognize who's around us? and if we are close to something of interest? using our (FB) profile as a filter of choice, and use sophisticated sensors to alert us? Google glasses and Nokia tatoo that where announced this week are a step in that direction, but definitely not in-fashion... yet. The cyborg factor needs to be eliminated to make it attractive.

Next speaker on stage was Marina Toeters, who is partly consultant and communication hub between industrials, technologists and creatives and partly has her own free wearables and hi-tech textiles work. She presented work that she has been doing for the European Space Agency. If we go out into space, the conditions we encounter are most likely to be very different to planet earth. Marina had put a whole of textiles to the stress-test of environmental conditions that might be reality in the extraterrestrial (extreme heat, extreme cold etcetc). Based on this research she has created a range of textile that can stand the conditions and perhaps even create poetic reactions through the extreme impacts.

Marina Toeters www.by-wire.net

Marina Toeters www.by-wire.net

textiles put to the stress-test by Marina Toeters for European Space Agency

Fabric that blossoms in case of extreme heat by Marina toeters for European Space Agency

All of these textiles exist today (aramide, silver-coatings), but are only available to small groups of people, i.e space-travellers and firemen that work under extreme conditions. Its most likely that we will see more of these extreme textiles first in Healthcare, work-wear and sports before they eventually enter the consumer market. so look out for them, I think there are actually more of them already that we can imagine, and remember the speed by which carbon fiber suddenly conquered the world.

In the sustainable program the first speaker was Lynsey from Modevoormorgen. she talked us through the 5 angles of sustainable fashion; sourcing, making, trading, shopping and upcycling. There are many ways of living a low-impact life. But so far nobody has succeded to have no-impact, not even the no impact man Colin Beavan.  Linsey's advise is to make your choices and make a difference when you can, or as it's often said, vote with your wallet, buy sustainable when you can, it's now even possible at H&M and C&A! Buying second hand is also not bad, and swap with your friends or on the internet instead of disposing. There is one challenge still for manufacturers and retailers, the take-back program, should be installed for fashion-industry, as it exists for electronics, as soon as possible.

Next was Carlien Helming from JUX, a short but impact-ful presentation about the vision and motivation of JUX. Jux makes fashion in Nepal, and often forgotten spot on the map now when most textile production is happening in China and India. Nepal also offers particular logistics challenges which make it a difficult place to produce. JUX has it's own factory which make it possible to oversee and decide on production methods that are sustainable and fair.

What's so interesting and inspiring about this brand that it's two people that had a vision and went out into the world and realized it. They simply believed in it. Carlien's advise is that if you want to make a difference, go out and do it, start today.

After the break the mini-conference was continued with two speakers explaining how fashion communication is changing through social media.

Uri Roos from Fortress Social Media Branding showed us his top-seven brands that had made succesfull use of social media in the last year, such as G-star. He has a number of provocations hidden in the slides; "in the future clothes will only be sold, discussed and tried online". enough to make a couple of retailers in the room slightly nervous and start to think loudly about how they are going to incorporate social media in their strategy.

The conference immediately started brain-storming about whether or not it was a valid statement, does this really also count for fashion? Or is fashion too social? Is fashion-shopping too much of an experience? Is buying fashion so intimately connected to the body that it can't work online? I think there are too many success stories for anybody to be able to deny that it can't work; i.e. pioneers like Yoox, net-a-porter, Oki-Ni have good business, and with Augmented Reality around the corner, many of today's short-comings can be solved, such as Uri showed in a smart shopfloor mirror video. AR it will also improve shopping from the couch with a Pad. The question should be reversed; what should the brick-and-mortar retailers start doing to retain their business? They could for example start to design their shops to be more like social hang-outs where like minded people can meet to have a good time and exchange ideas (about fashion) and browse their favorite lifestyle items (not just fashion). Good examples of this kind of cross-selling hang-outs in Utrecht are Revenge of the Lily and Village Coffee.

After this Joost Nauta from Fashiolista suitingly took over the floor to tell us about true friendspertise; social shopping and recommendations online. Fashiolista connects with your social networks like FB after the installment of the Fashiolista like button you can like any item (from a shop or not) and all your friends/followers will see it. This adds the inspiration and "girlfriend" element to online shopping that so many people have been missing. Social online shopping has been explored by many such as OSoYou and Nuji which was recently launched by Nalden. Why this is only for girls surprises some of the men in the room, Joost reassures us that it's only a focus issue for now, in the near future men's profiles will be added to Fashiolista. The business-model is more of  a value exchange model or a pro-ratio click-through percentage of sales rather than generation of traditional revenues. The combination of personal data (from a FB profile) and liking an item (from a retailer) offers interesting new business perspectives. Perhaps in the future insight reports can be generated and sold/exchanged with retailers.



\pictures from the exhibiton in Dom Hotel

I-did Slow fashion

laser-cut ply-wood shoes by Winde Rienstra

laser-cut card-board shoes by Winde Rienstra

New Fashion Order

The power-houses of fashion are facing competition. For ages fashion has been dictated by an elite of taste-makers, their whims being watched and instantly copied to become affordable fashion for everybody. But why is it that you would let somebody else dictate and decide what you find beautiful? Of course for a long time being in-fashion gave your personality status, but nowadays in the crowded urban environment more important to have a personal signature and style. One that is recognizable and distinguishes you from the crowd and not easily copied.

So why not make your own fashion? And I don't mean behind the sewing machine, I mean behind the computer. There are some small new businesses mushrooming that truly let you build and create your fashion the way you want it.

Take Knittedonline they offer customized knittings made according to your wishes and creativity. The basic white canvas models can be used as a starting point for your pattern design to create cushions, mittens, hats, tea-cosies, baby-covers. The only limit is your fantasy. You can also order an already existing pattern. Knittedonline is also a community of knitwear designers and other self-taught creatives. You can upload your pattern and if it starts selling you will earn a 5% commission, which eventually could create a small-scale cooperative of knitwear designers, each owning a stake in the success of the company/site.

Unitedstyles is another website let you design your own fashion to stand out from the crowd. The basic principle is quite similar to knittedonline. you choose a white canvas model and then style it by modifying details and adding color and pattern. The prices are very reasonable and competitive with high-street fashion shops. The company structure of Unitedstyles is a typical late capitalistic one; successful entrepreneur at the head of a strong international creative crew.

Both examples naturally remind me of Threadless or NikeID who where the personalization pioneers. NikeID is more of a promotion model for Nike than an actual money-maker, or at least I have never heard of any profit generated by NikeID. The difference is that for Knittedonline and Unitedstyles this is their core business.  Threadless is a great grass-root t-shirt company with it's core in graphic design and print with an avant-la-lettre participatory and competitive element.

I believe these companies are answering an essential need for post-modern people living in crowded urban areas, and the internet is the facilitator and enabler of a new kind of business, Affordable customization on demand. It might change the fashion system.

colour contamination

Mold and stains where always dreaded signs of decomposition, decay and filth. Something to be ashamed of. But now artists and designers are starting to celebrate these imperfections, they recreate them and shape them through processes of creative alchemy, where the random act of something that resembles the living organism of bacteria is replicated.

The dip-bag by Creatuals and Mycaro is trying to capture the emotion of a moment and capture it into the random color contamination that happens when a white piece of cloth is dipped into pigments.

Dip-bag by Creatuals and Mycaro

Dip-bag by Creatuals and Mycaro

Pop-up store for Dip-bag by Creatuals and Mycaro

Also Lizan Freijsen is fascinated by the beauty of the mold and stains, it has been central to her artistic work for many years. Recently she has turned this into carpets of lichen that we could all have on the floor in our living-room. It looks so organic that you easily start to imagine that it would still be growing once installed in your living-room.

Lizan Freisen Korstmos carpet @ Objekt Rotterdam

Lizan Freisen Korstmos carpet @ Objekt Rotterdam

In this techno-crafted self-painting dress by Anouk Wipdrecht, it is as if a uncontrolled lab is letting it's liquids go over the dress, contaminating it with color. the moving liquids pigments taints the dress with a sensual, growing, organic pattern.

self-painting dress by Anouk Wipdrecht

self-painting dress by Anouk Wipdrecht

even hair now gets contaminated by color, just look at Lady Gaga's dip-colored hair
(Grammy awards 2010)

Add caption

The chromatic dissolving or fading from one color to another is now also entering interior design. The contamination has become gradations or fadings but still has a flavor of poison in it due to the stingy fluo.

The collection by Scholtens and Baaijings for Pastoe presented at IMM

Production Woontrend and EH&I

Buy nothing year?

I didn't make a new years resolution but on the 2nd of January there was a documentary on TV that definitely made me think that Buy Nothing Year might be one. Overal spullen / Stuff Everywhere by Judith de Leeuw painstakingly reveals how much stuff she has in her house, because she sets out to count it all! Not a small nor easy task. Eventually she ends up exhibiting it all in a big empty hall, categorized by type and neatly laid out flat (Things Organized Neatly style) Passers by look at the stuff and try to say something about the owner, confrontation and reflection on how stuff reflects who we are.


well, at this point the New Years resolution was already too late, because I had already been to the sales, my bi-yearly fashion fix and bought a lambswool sweater and 4 pairs of woollen stockings (you never know when they go out of fashion).
So too late to really stick with the good intentions. Earlier on I had read about the 5 pieces wardrobe principle, there is even a Facebook group for that.. I liked the idea of 5 pieces wardrobe. It's not buying nothing, but it limits your retail-therapy and it's a principle that creates awareness of your consumption patterns and what's worth investing in.

Add caption

The girls from the Free Fashion Challenge are definitely more brave than me, they really take the challenge, stopped buying clothes for one year. It's an experiment and they will record their reactions and experiences. What happens when fashion addicts kick off? and how is it that fashion has become more about consumption than self-expression?

Add caption

There is also a group on Flickr called Fabricate fashion. These people are challenging themselves to make or buy only handmade for their wardrobe for a year. A good excuse to get creative, use up their fabric and yarn stash and avoid consuming mass-manufactured goods.

So when I initially thought about this new years resolution, I really thought about buying nothing, nothing at all, not just fashion, excluding daily necessities of course. I think I have enough, there is actually not much I really need. And on-top of that I like to think of myself as a creative person with lots of yarn and fabric stash so I should be able to provide myself for a year and I could organize the occasional swap-party. But I have already relaxed my criteria, I think it's ok to buy second-hand and maybe there are just a couple of things I really need like a fully automatic espresso machine and a Media Player that can easily play content from my HD and internet on my telly. (ironic, but true) So even if I will not manage completely at least I question myself more if it's really necessary to buy something.

Besides from that an odd feeling of disloyalty to the Economy starting to creep onto me. I started to think through that if we all start to buy nothing, the economy will stop. That is really scary, the continuation of the economy as we know it all depends on us keeping consuming. There is something utterly dis-functional about that system, it must be possible to think of another kind of economy, one where the re-circulation of goods is stimulated and rewarded. Where the first time consumption of raw materials is priced according to the environmental impact of the total costs to the environment. Well I'm not an economist so these are just a couple of ideas.


Thanks to Claudia and Jacqueline for inspiring me to write this piece

Fashions new Value-networks

The fashion system is sick and those of us that have been asking ourselves how it is possible that H&M can sell men's knitted sweaters for 20 euro, know it. Upon the first economic implosion in 2008 the fashion industry suffered, the October shows and sales-rooms where a catastrophe, serious plummeting of orders, read my post on Reshaping Attitudes in Arnhem, where some possible scenarios for change where proposed.

Now some changes are happening for real;  recently I have read about a lot of new "indie" brands that are inter-weaving consumable fashion products with social responsibility and care for the environment. Fashions answer to slumping markets, ethical concerns (outsourcing to 3rd world countries, sweat-shops, modern slavery, child-labor) and environmental concerns (pollution through the whole production and logistics chain)  is to bring the making process closer to home through local value networks. 

Many of these little companies have of course been inspired by American Apparel, who was one of the first to bring production back home. Also Nukohiva by Floortje Dessing was early in starting her sustainable fashion initiative (read my post here). American Apparel and Nukohiva are already big, these new "indie" brands/companies are independent they are not (yet) bought up by any fashion conglomerates, their business-models are different. They just do what they think is right, much of the time for very personal reasons and feelings of injustice.

I-did, slow fashion is a Utrecht fashion company,  so far it's a webshop and it has one real shop in the Pastoe factory in Utrecht. Skilled emigrants work in this craft-shop, either they bring in their foreign diplomas (that are not recognized in NL) or they follow an internal MBO education of half a year to learn the basics. The fashion is quirky and not bound to seasons, there is not a seasonal new arrival, items just stay in the collection for a long time. Each item has a name-tag of the seamstress that made it. It's like the traceability known from food brought into the fashion industry, it adds a personal connection, the idea that a real human being was making this with care and love.

I-did Slow Fashion

MMM, Mode Met een Missie, tagline; everybody deserves a second chance.
is more powered by social injustice, people that have to re-integrate into the labor market can get a chance with them. delinquents, disenfranchised, unsociable people, people with low work ethos and unschooled emigrants alike. Much of the funding for the company comes from the funds that are made available to re-integrate this kind of people. But to get out of the sphere of only being a social reintegration company they have teamed up with Claes Iversen, a young Dutch fashion designer. So social injustice and integration is getting linked to haute couture, quite a bridge to cross. But why not?

Claes Iversen for Ami-a-toi by Mode Met een Missie

Golden Hook, knitted by French grannys
grand-mothers master the art of knitting, we all know that. Golden Hook works together with grand-mothers to create their collection of fashionable knits (ala Wool-and-the-gang) It's a way for the pensioners to earn an extra buck in their old days. For the yarn Golden Hook works with local suppliers like sheep herds wool from Creuse, the cotton is coming from Egypt.

Golden Hook

Gudrun & Gudrun, an Faeroe Island knitting company that makes use of the local population to knit re-interpreted traditional Faeroe sweaters. Both have studied and worked in Denmark and upon their return to Iceland found they had to reinvent themselves to earn a living. They work with local wool and local Faeroe women to do the knitting paying fair salaries. In order to meet demand they have expanded their knitting community to also include women from Jordan and the Baltic countries. Their presentation and style is very fashionable and professional. Once when it became known that Sara Lund from The Killing (Forbrydelsen) was always wearing a Gudrun & Gudrun sweater, then their fame really started to rise.

Sara Lund (the Killing) in her famous Gudrun Gudrun snowflake sweater

Sløjfen, grannys from this Copenhagens activity center help produce fashionable sweaters for Henrik Vibskov and other Danish fashion designers, i.e. Mads Nørregård. The group calls themselves Kaffeslabberasen (coffeedrinking and chatting) and that is also the title of a book that has recently been published. In the book 7 designers have designed knitwear, the 7 grannies have knit it and written the recipes.

More natural than nature?

That natural means untouched, unadulterated and pure seems obvious. But natural, the state of being and looking natural has become so desirable that people are increasingly going out-of-their way to create it and to achieve it. We call that natural constructed.

In beauty we see that more and more people, salons and brands are striving to represent, communicate and be natural. First of all we see that brands leave out harmful substances like parabens or aluminum chlorohydrate and phthalates, even very mainstream brands like Sanex and Dove are starting to do this today and L’oreal recently launched a hair-die without ammoniac; INOA, so now hair can be colored without aggression to the scalp.
Natural ingredients are taking over in beauty product.  Herb extracts and essential oils are replacing ingredients and perfumes and natural oils are being used for hair-treatments i.e. from the argan tree or macadamia nuts. Hair gets healthy treatments like massage to stimulate the blood-circulation of the scalp to revive the hair-follicles. It’s all about feeding your hair to make it more healthy, glossy and voluminous. That equals Natural.
When it comes to make-up the natural or nude look is hot. You might think that means no make-up, but not in this case; it means carefully applying make-up that is all natural colors, to make you look like your better natural self. There are even foundations that contain natural minerals that allegedly improve the health of your skin whilst you wear it. Also foundations have become so light that it’s currently being delivered like a mousse, miles away from the cakes from the past. Make-up is turning aquarelle.

Bare Escentuals - Active soil complex

Bare Escentuals - Bare Minerals

Bare Escentuals - shop impression

So it takes effort to appear natural. It can take hours to create your natural look.
We think it’s a reaction to the recession, and all the glam and opulence that we had before it. Being natural represents the idea of a new cleaned up and pure state-of-mind. It’s more relaxed and casual (or so it seems). It suggests living in a more modest setting, causing less harm and costing less money.
We anticipate that beauty-products and treatments will get closer and closer to the edible as what is edible cannot be harmful to the body and skin. If it’s good for the inside it must be good for the outside too. So food and beauty will start to integrate and become on system or approach that are closely connected. We already see a lot of beauty-food i.e. like Borba and collagen drinks, and Aveda branded salons also house cafe's that reflect identical values.

Beauty is going to be a reflection of general health & wellbeing, the challenge for Philips will be to deliver product/service solutions that support, enhance or strengthen the natural systems involved in beautification. Seems like the most natural thing to do.

Published in edited form in trends section of New Value News by Philips Design July 2011

Cris

An institute of men’s fashion in the Netherlands has just opened his new shop at the Springweg in Utrecht. The street and the outside is as pretty as most of the old center in Utrecht. It doesn’t reveal anything of the industrial raw edges and glam decay that you find inside the shop. It looks like an abandoned building has been hijacked and covered with a eclectic perfect varnish, where decomposition seems to have been frozen, captured in this moment and stopped.

The space is vast, with a pleasant light bathed atrium in the middle. The floors have been stripped back to their most raw and primary state, it’s a patchwork of raw concrete, gravel filled cement and old planks. The simple bricks that are typically used for construction, lay uncovered; naked, brute and crude. The rawness and imperfections have been framed by perfect white walls and are being interrupted by perfectly geometrically shelving systems. The industrial feel is enhanced with simple uncovered fluorescent tubes in the ceiling, clothes are exhibited on iron carts painted in a subtle utilitarian camouflage green the only color that seems to have been used. Unpolished copper is highlighting details such as clothes racks, window frames and doorknobs of the change rooms. It is now already covered with fingerprints and with time it will continue to develop a varnish, and the parts that are outside will corrode into a beautiful green.

Men come from all over the Netherlands to shop at Cris, the careful selection of menswear reflects an eclectic urban casual style. The first Cris shop was opened in 1999.  The vision of Cris is described as honest advise, attention and care, small-scaled and authenticity. Cris puts emphasis on honest and approachable service; the atmosphere the personnel set in the shop is helpful and friendly it feels like a warm welcome.

The following brands are sold by Cris;

Menswear; Roberto Collina, Drykorn, Hope, Martin Margiela, Folk, Mauro Grifoni, Daniele Allessandrini. 

Shoes; Officine Creative, Moma, Superga. 

Bags; Corsia, Eastpak, DRKSHDW van Rick Owens

Cris Herenwinkel

Springweg 10

3511 VP Utrecht NL

Cris Outlet

Mariaplaats 3a

3511 LH Utrecht NL

www.cris.nu

Interior architect: Élise van Thuyne
Restoration: Spijkers met Koppen by Thijs Ravenhorst

Furniture by Johan

Metalwork by Staalstudio by Roland Manders